Trajan Silver Denarius RIC II Trajan 188

Monetary Context and the Dacian Triumphs

During the reign of Trajan, the silver denarius functioned as the core currency of the Roman state, serving as the primary vehicle for military remuneration, state contracts, and inter-regional commerce. When Trajan assumed the purple in AD 98, the imperial treasury required stabilization following the political volatility of Domitian and Nerva. The outbreak of the First Dacian War in AD 101 and the Second Dacian War in AD 105 to 106 dramatically transformed Roman finances. Trajan's decisive victory over King Decebalus culminated in the annexation of Dacia and the capture of immense royal treasure, famously estimated by ancient sources such as John Lydus at millions of pounds of gold and silver. The acquisition of these vast precious metal reserves, combined with direct control over the rich Dacian gold and silver mines in the Apuseni Mountains, permitted the imperial government to undertake an unprecedented expansion of the coinage supply. RIC II Trajan 188 was introduced as part of this monumental monetary surge. Struck at a theoretical standard of approximately 3.2 to 3.4 grams of silver, the denarius maintained an average fineness around eighty to eighty-five percent silver, characteristic of Trajan's middle reign. Rather than debasing the currency, the massive influx of Dacian bullion allowed the administration to issue billions of coins while simultaneously executing lavish public works, such as the Forum of Trajan, and funding the alimentary welfare institutions across Italy. In this context, RIC II Trajan 188 functioned not merely as economic specie but as portable state propaganda, articulating the triumph of Roman arms and the resulting pax (peace) directly to soldiers, merchants, and provincial subjects throughout the empire.

Production Technology and Mint Attribution

All standard silver denarii of RIC II Trajan 188 were struck at the imperial mint in the capital city of Rome. The Rome mint was a highly organized administrative and industrial complex operated by enslaved and freed personnel under the oversight of imperial procurators. Production of silver coinage relied on manual hammer striking utilizing carefully prepared pairs of intaglio engraved dies. Blank planchets were cast in molds to achieve uniform weight standards before being heated to increase malleability. The lower die, set firmly into an anvil, typically carried the obverse imperial portrait, protecting the detailed likeness from the direct blow of the hammer. The upper die, mounted in a handheld punch, bore the reverse design of Pax and the Dacian captive. Because reverse dies absorbed the force of the hammer directly, they broke and wore down far more rapidly than obverse dies, leading to high ratios of reverse dies to obverse dies across the issue. Die studies compiled by Bernhard Woytek indicate that the production of Trajan's fifth-consulship denarii was executed in several synchronized officinae (workshops). Engravers maintained consistent stylistic conventions, rendering crisp, naturalistic anatomical details, delicate drapery folds, and clean, standardized lettering. Minor varieties in die alignment, flan thickness, and the exact placement of exergual lines or throne decorations reflect the hand-crafted nature of die cutting within the centralized Rome mint.

Obverse Portraiture and Style

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 188 presents a right-facing bust of Trajan executed in the mature, sober stylistic idiom that defined his middle principate. The emperor is depicted wearing a laurel wreath, tied at the back of the head with two fillets falling gracefully along the nape of the neck. Trajan's portraiture on this issue reflects a deliberate break with the idealized Flavian court portraiture, favoring a realistic, civic countenance characterized by low-cut bangs combed flat across the forehead, a strong aquiline nose, firm jawline, and deeply carved facial planes that project disciplined authority. In accordance with the standard catalogue entry, the bust is draped on the left shoulder, showing folds of the military cloak (paludamentum) gathered beneath the neck, while leaving the majority of the neck and chest bare in heroic fashion. Variations in bust truncation and drapery arrangement are known across different die pairings, occasionally featuring drapery visible on both shoulders or bare-chested iterations, though the standard catalogued form specifies drapery on the left shoulder. The laurel wreath symbolizes Trajan's status as an imperator crowned with triumphal glory. The obverse die work displays exceptional craftsmanship, balancing high-relief modeling of the emperor's features with fine circular inscription borders.

Reverse Iconography: Pax and the Suppliant Dacian

The reverse of RIC II Trajan 188 features a striking and politically charged allegorical composition: Pax, the personification of peace, seated facing left on a decorated throne. Pax is depicted naked to the waist, with her lower torso and legs enveloped in flowing drapery, evoking classical artistic models of divine grace. In her extended right hand, Pax holds aloft an olive branch, the universal Mediterranean emblem of peace and reconciliation. In her left hand, she cradles a transverse sceptre resting against her arm, indicating imperial majesty and sovereign authority. The defining element of this design is the figure positioned immediately before her: a Dacian warrior kneeling on the ground in supplication, turning his head upward toward the goddess. The captive Dacian is typically rendered wearing indigenous northern garb, including long trousers (braccae) and occasionally a pointed Phrygian-style pileus cap, with hands outstretched in a posture of pleading or submission. This tableau transforms the concept of Pax from a passive state of quietude into an active consequence of military conquest. In Roman political thought, true peace was not achieved through diplomatic compromise, but through debellatio: the total military vanquishing and submission of barbarian foes, perfectly encapsulated in the Roman poet Virgil's injunction to spare the conquered and crush the proud. The kneeling Dacian acknowledges Roman supremacy, demonstrating that Trajanic peace was purchased through absolute victory.

Epigraphy and Titulature

The legends on both faces of RIC II Trajan 188 provide essential dating markers and convey the core ideological messaging of Trajan's government. The obverse legend reads IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P, expanding into the full Latin imperial titulature: Imperatori Traiano Augusto Germanico Dacico, Pontifici Maximo, Tribunicia Potestate, Consuli Quintum, Patri Patriae. This dedication, cast in the dative case (Imperatori Traiano...), indicates that the coinage was symbolically struck by the Senate and the Roman people in honor of the emperor. The title Germanicus, earned under Nerva in AD 97, is joined by Dacicus, officially assumed late in AD 102 following the initial success of the First Dacian War. The mention of COS V signifies that Trajan had entered his fifth consulship, an office he assumed on January 1, AD 103, and which he retained without taking a sixth consulship until AD 112. The reverse inscription reads S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, expanding to Senatus Populusque Romanus Optimo Principi (The Senate and the Roman People to the Best Princeps). The honorary title Optimus Princeps had been bestowed upon Trajan by the Senate early in his reign, alluding to the virtues of Jupiter Optimus Maximus and framing Trajan as the exemplary civic benefactor and protector of Rome. The placement of this formula across the reverse frame unifies the depiction of the pacified Dacian with the senatorial acclamation of Trajan's virtuous rule.

Typology, Die Sequences, and Chronological Placement

Within the standard numismatic corpus of the Roman Imperial Coinage, this type is catalogued as RIC II 188. In Bernhard Woytek's specialized monograph Die Reichspragung des Kaisers Traianus (MIR 14), the type is categorized under emission groups dated to the period of Trajan's fifth consulship, corresponding to MIR 285b. The chronological boundaries of this issue are securely framed between AD 103, the commencement of Trajan's fifth consulship, and AD 111, the eve of his sixth consulship (AD 112). More specifically, numismatists recognize that the inclusion of the title Dacicus places the earliest striking after late AD 102, while the iconography of complete Dacian capitulation strongly suggests intense minting activity in and immediately following AD 106, when Decebalus was killed and the Dacian capital of Sarmizegetusa was captured. During this prolonged period of fifth-consulship minting, the Rome mint produced a wide variety of parallel denarius reverse types celebrating the newly founded province, including Dacian trophies, mourning personifications of Dacia, and captives bound beside weeping military standards. RIC II Trajan 188 stands out within this series by explicitly merging the divine Pax with the kneeling barbarian figure. Stylistic evolution across obverse dies enables specialists to trace the transition from early, compact portraits around AD 103 to broader, heroic portrait busts with longer hair and deeper relief by AD 108 to 110.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Economic Life

Denarii of the RIC II Trajan 188 type circulated extensively across the Roman Empire and beyond its frontiers for several generations. Because Trajan's silver coinage maintained a dependable silver standard and was minted in extraordinary volume, specimens were dispersed rapidly along military supply corridors to frontier garrisons in Germania, Britannia, Pannonia, and Moesia, as well as into civilian markets in Italy, Hispania, Gaul, and the eastern Mediterranean. Major imperial coin hoards from across the western and northern provinces, such as the Shapwick and Dorchester hoards in Britain and numerous continental hoards in the Balkans, frequently contain substantial numbers of fifth-consulship Trajanic denarii displaying varying degrees of circulation wear. Furthermore, following Trajan's major currency recall around AD 107, during which worn pre-Neronian and Republican denarii were systematically withdrawn and melted down, freshly minted types like RIC II Trajan 188 became dominant components of the silver pool. Their circulation did not terminate with Trajan's death in AD 117; hoard evidence demonstrates that Trajanic denarii continued to circulate actively through the Antonine and Severan eras, remaining in daily commercial use until the massive third-century inflationary debasements under Caracalla and his successors gradually caused them to be hoarded, exported, or melted down for lower-purity radiates.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol. III: Nerva to Hadrian. p. 78, no. 343
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II Trajan 188. RIC II Trajan 188
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 257, no. 188
4. Die Reichspragung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117 n. Chr.) (MIR 14). Type 285b